Fear of Deportation Is Cited In Killing of Illegal Immigrant

An illegal immigrant who friends said was afraid to report to the police that she was being abused by her former boyfriend was found dead in the basement of her Englewood, N.J., apartment yesterday, officials said. Prosecutors said they suspect the former boyfriend, who has apparently fled the country.

Prosecutors said the woman, Alena Gonzales, a 36-year-old mother of two from the Philippines who disappeared Saturday night, had tried to break off her relationship with the man, Fredy Bustamanti, 32, and was engaged to another man, Peter Bartels. Mr. Bartels reported her missing to the Englewood police on Sunday after she failed to meet him Saturday morning.

Friends of Ms. Gonzales said that Mr. Bustamanti repeatedly beat her over the course of a four-year-relationship and threatened to report her to immigration officials if she reported his actions. They said that after Ms. Gonzales began seeing another man, Mr. Bustamanti repeatedly threatened to kill her, her boyfriend and himself. ''Fredy was always physically abusive and violent with her,'' said Susan Goodman, a friend of Ms. Gonzales. ''She is illegal herself and she always had this fear of being deported.''

After receiving a tip yesterday, the police discovered Ms. Gonzales's body in the basement of the apartment building in which she and Mr. Bustamanti lived at 26 West Palisade Avenue, Englewood's main commercial thoroughfare. The Bergen County prosecutor, William H. Schmidt, said the autopsy results showed that Ms. Gonzales was strangled to death.

''An object was used to effect the strangulation and the asphyxiation,'' he said, adding that the police were not sure exactly where Ms. Gonzales was killed.

Mr. Schmidt said investigators believe Mr. Bustamanti, who worked for Campoli Construction in Cresskill, N.J., flew to his native Guatemala on Saturday. He said Mr. Bustamanti's estranged wife had once filed a domestic abuse complaint against him.

Violeta Hernandes, 30, the landlord of the Palisades Avenue building, said Mr. Bustamanti had moved in about three years ago. He then asked her if Ms. Gonzales, the mother of twin 12-year-old girls still in the Phillippines, could move into a $250 room in the building.

She said the couple looked ''happy'' and she never saw any hitting in the relationship, and added that she was ''very surprised'' by the allegations against Mr. Bustamanti.

But Mr. Schmidt said Ms. Gonzales's friends told prosecutors that the relationship was ''not a good one.'' When asked whether the relationship was violent he said yes.

Mr. Schmidt said ''the vast majority'' of homicides prosecutors see in Bergen County are the result of ''violent relationships.''

Experts say that Ms. Gonzales's plight is not unusual and that illegal immigrants frequently hesitate to report domestic abuse. They are also threatened with exposure to immigration officials by their employers or people they get in disputes with.

''I think it's a widespread problem,'' said Ai-Jen Poo, a program director for the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence. ''Reporting it renders them vulnerable to being deported. Immigration laws don't take into account the power relations immigrant women face.''

Ms. Goodman said that Ms. Gonzales had arrived in the United States about 10 years ago and had held a variety of jobs as a housekeeper. Her earnings here went primarily to supporting her two daughters and her 65-year-old mother in the Philippines.